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Digital Classroom

Explore Australia's history at the National Library's Digital Classroom, aligned with the Australian Curriculum. With over 10 million items, we support diverse learning styles, fostering inquiry-based learning for students to analyse sources and draw conclusions about the Australian story.
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A publication showing a range of new colour televisions with the words Colour TV, what to look for when buying a set

Australian Consumers' Association, Colour TV: what to look for when buying a set, 1977, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1285282

Communication

Topic

In the 1970s, technology started to change quickly, in a period known as a ‘tech boom’. 

Humanities
Year 3
Australian history
A landscape showing a group of people gathered around two campfires. Some sit and lie near the fires, while others stand. Smoke rises from the fires into the night sky. A body of water and distant cliffs are visible under a moonlit, partly cloudy sky.

Joseph Lycett & Joseph Lycett, Aborigines resting by camp fire, near the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle, New South Wales, 1817, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138500420

Colonising the environment

Topic

Learn about the environmental legacies of Cook's voyages including the impact on Australia's natural resources, Aboriginal land-management practices and connections to contemporary environmental activism.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Australian history
Explorers
First Australians
A detailed drawing of various hunting implements and weapons. The illustration includes spears, shields, boomerangs, clubs, and other tools, arranged in a grid-like pattern on a plain background. Each item is depicted with precise lines and shading, with some labelled using letters A and B.

Port Jackson Painter, Aboriginal hunting implements and weapons, 1790, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135230406

Changing technology

Topic 

Explore how food production and gathering methods have evolved over time, using artworks and photographs from our collection.

Humanities
Year 3
Australian history
Science and technology
A painting of a busy 19th-century Bourke Street, Melbourne, with horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, and shops lining the street. Crowds gather on both sides, and a variety of people are depicted walking or riding.

Tom Roberts, Bourke Street, Melbourne, 1886, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134285521

Changing streetscapes

Topic 

Discover how streetscapes have evolved over time by comparing depictions of Bourke St, Melbourne over time to foster student discussions about urban change and its impact on daily life.

Humanities
Year 3
Australian history
drawing of the Eastern Shore of Murray Island looking North West

Supreme Court and Australia High Court (1981) Papers of Bryan Keon-Cohen [manuscript]: the Mabo case, 1981-2000, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-224081463

Challenging terra nullius

Topic

Explore evidence of Aboriginal agriculture and settlement in pre-colonial Australia to challenge the concept of terra nullius.

Humanities
Senior Secondary
Australian history
Explorers
First Australians
Complete Map of the Everlasting Unity of the Great Qing (Da Qing wannian yitong dili quantu)

After Huang Qianren (1694–1771), Complete Map of the Everlasting Unity of the Great Qing (Da Qing wannian yitong dili quantu), Jiaqing period (1796–1820), National Library of China

Celestial Empire

Module

Aligned with Year 9 History in the Australian Curriculum, this resource encourages students to explore compelling historical sources and form their own conclusions about the Qing dynasty.

Humanities
Year 9
World cultures and history
Catherine Branson

Catherine Branson

Catherine Branson - Former judge and human rights lawyer

Topic 

Catherine Branson QC, AC, former judge, and former President of the Australian Human Rights commission has also spent her career advocating for equality, gender issues, and the rights of marginalized communities in Australia and beyond.

Humanities
Year 10
Australian women
Law and legislation
Angkor Wat, perron of main temple and sculptures

Yves Coffin, [Angkor Wat, perron of main temple and sculptures], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140376052

Building Angkor

Topic

The Khmer kings were prolific builders.

Humanities
Year 8
Asia-Pacific
World cultures and history
A print of a woman within an oval frame. She is wearing an elaborate ruffled collar and dress. She is wearing a crown. Below her portrait are words in Latin: 'Elizabetha D.G. Regina Ang: Fran: et Hib.'

Elizabetha D.G. Regina Ang. Fran. et Hib., 1600, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136050723

Bound to service

Topic

Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire, Europe entered a period of cultural, political and economic change. The stabilising force of the Roman Empire gave way and new states and rulers stepped in to fill gaps.

Humanities
Year 8
World cultures and history
Small red christening gown with black buttons down the centre

Christening gown worn by members of the Kwong family from the Papers of the Kwong family, 1891-2001, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3006822

Becoming Australian

Topic

Explore the different ways and reasons that people came to Australia and stayed through the personal migration stories of Kwong Mui Ying, Lorenzo Abrogar Gamboa and Thomas Frankovitz.

Humanities
Year 6
Migration and immigration
A photo of a woman standing and speaking to a room of seated and standing people.

Francis Reiss, [Anna Burke, Federal member for Chisholm, at the Chisholm Aged Care Forum, Mt. Waverly Community Centre, Melbourne, October or November, 2001], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-146654777

Be informed, get involved: Participate in Australia’s democracy

Topic

While the majority of Australians participate in our democracy during elections, there are ways of participating and sharing your beliefs throughout the year.

Humanities
Year 8
Australian history
Democracy
Protest and dissent
woman leaning against glass partition smiling at camera

Professor Kim Rubenstein, photo courtesy of Michael Silver

Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens

Topic 

Women lawyers stand at the forefront of women's participation in Australian civic life.

Humanities
Year 10
Australian women
Law and legislation

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